What To Do With Old Work

     Before I revamped my website, I had all my old art quilts on it for sale. They were there for years. Then, when I created my new website, I decided to post only my newer works. The older ones weren't part of a series. They were important steps in my growth as an artist because, in each one, I explored a theme or a technique and I learned about various topics such as color, composition, line, etc. But they weren't important to me anymore. So I put them in my "Gallery Under the Futon". I realized that they were probably never going to be sold and didn't want to gift them to someone who may not be crazy about them. And, since, they weren't characteristic of what I want to create now, I took my labels off the back so that I wouldn't be associated with them. I donated them to Ruth Funk Center for Textiles in Melbourne, Florida. They wanted art quilts donated so they could auction or sell them as a fundraiser to improve their storage facility. I ended up giving them 11 art quilts. It felt good. I hope the money will help them because I love that museum and enjoy seeing the exhibits there. And since I took my name off the pieces, my current art will not be devalued if they only sell for a pittance.
     But I didn't give them all my old art quilts. Two of them weren't worth sharing, so I threw them out. Two more had some promise so I trimmed them down to the parts I still liked. For one of those, it now seemed like a complete composition. It was already backed and quilted but to give it a more arty look, I fused it to ecofelt  to stiffen it up. I cut the edge of the binding off because it didn't seem to contribute to the overall look and then I painted the edges with dark blue paint to keep them from raveling. Now it hangs in my entrance hallway and I'm really pleased with it. All it needs is a name.

Unnamed

     In November, I wrote an article for  HandEye Magazine. They asked me to write why I make art. Writing it, was a good reflective exercise. And two of my smaller works got juried into the exhibit Small Things Considered at Arts On Douglas, a fine art gallery in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.  As its name suggests, it is an exhibit of smaller artworks they do every December with the idea to sell art for holiday gift-giving.

My two mounted on black linen-wrapped canvas

So now, I'm winding the year up with smaller holiday-themed projects and enjoying not having artworks sitting around gathering dust. It leaves me open, mentally, to create anew. I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find art blogs. Please make comments on the artists' posts so that they know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.

Experimenting With A Product

     Do you like to run experiments when you discover a product you've never used? I think I originally became a scientist because I love to do experiments. Now that I'm an artist, I find this skill handy and still fun. The product I'm writing about is called Fiber Etch. I found out about it from Jane Dunnewold when I took the Art Cloth Mastery Class and decided it had potential in my artwork so I ordered a bottle of it. Basically, it destroys cellulose-based materials, which means you can use it to selectively dissolve cotton fabric.  My friend, Angie Knowles, sent me a sample of a silk-cotton fabric she had purchased so that I could try Fiber Etch on it.
     Here's what I did and the results:
1.) I applied the Fiber Etch (which is a thick liquid a little thicker than maple syrup) through a thermofax screen onto the fabric.

the fabric wet with fiber etch

the thermofax design I used

2.) I let it dry overnight.
3.) I ironed it to heat-destroy the cotton fibers where the Fiber Etch had made contact.

the brown parts are where the cotton got destroyed

4.) I soaked it in warm water for about 10 minutes and softly rubbed it with my hands.
5.) I hung it to dry
6.) I ironed it flat and brushed it with a scrub brush (but gently) to remove any stray cotton fibers.

this design was not a good choice since it didn't keep the detail... too much cotton got destroyed.

I redid it with 3 other thermofax screens to try for a more suitable design for using with this product

You can see from the results that this particular fabric is made using silk woven in one direction and cotton in the other, so the result from the fiber etched parts is silk fibers running in one direction with no fibers woven with them in the areas that got etched. This works ok for designs with thin lines or thin shapes, but leaves an area too open for designs with bigger shapes.

7.) I put it in a dye bath of  procion MX dyes ( sun yellow mixed with mixing blue 50:50). (I chose this color mixture because I was aware that cotton turns a different green hue in it than silk does).
8.) Batched it for 24 hours, rinsed it, dried it, and ironed it.

the silk fibers dye a more yellow green and the cotton fibers dye a more blue-green. 

You can see the silk fibers running vertically in the etched areas. 

I had previously tried this product with a poly-cotton fabric in which the all the threads are a mix of cotton and poly. The result is more effective with this type of fabric because you end up with woven shapes in the etched areas, but they are thinner since all the cotton gets removed and only polyester remains. 

The remaining polyester threads (in the etched areas) don't accept the dye; only the cotton does.
So you end up with your thermofax-etched areas staying white

The whole cloth dyes lighter than expected since the polyester part doesn't accept the dye.

I have more things I want to try with this product, but this is a good start and I found it interesting to see how the thread structure plays a roll in the results. I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art blogs. Please make comments on the artists' post to let them know you stopped by.  Thanks for visiting.

Do You Keep Up With Technology and Social Media?

     If you have a blog or website or Etsy shop or other, how often do you check behind the scenes? Apparently, for me, not often enough. I just discovered that I had many comments on my blog waiting for me to ok publishing them. I was just browsing through the settings on blogger and accidentally came across them sitting there for months waiting for me to approve them. That was a surprise. A nice one that so many had taken the time to make comments. But, in the past, I used to get email notification that someone had commented and then I'd approve it right away. It seems that those email notifications somehow got shut off. So now I went ahead and approved all of those waiting comments. I apologize and will find out how to get those notifications to me back again. Thank you for reading my blog and making comments. It's so nice to know there are people out there who care. I hope that some day I can meet some of you in person.
      I also forgot to take my Etsy shop off of vacation mode. I put it on vacation while my solo show was going so that I wouldn't have any conflict with sales. It's up and operating again. I have been keeping up with Instagram, though. I find that to be very satisfying. I decided to use it to promote my art as a love of nature since my art is always about nature. So on Instagram, I mostly post short videos or still photos of things I discover when I'm out and about on the bike trail and in my yard. I take a rest stop on the bike trail at the same place each time just a few days apart and in that one spot have discovered amazing things and am surprised by the changes that take place so quickly.

A view of the bike trail with cicadas sounding

I'd love for you to follow me on Instagram #reginabdunn if you want some quiet nature interludes interspersed with some art here and there. In the meantime, I'm linking to Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art blogs. Please make comments so that the artists know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.

Do You Have A Favorite Season?

     Each season has special delights to offer, but is there one that you treasure the most? I'm not sure if I have a favorite, but summers have always been special to me. Perhaps it's because it is the time of vacations. Vacation from school (both when I was a student and when I was a teacher) and vacation with the family away from home. Summer, for me, is a time to flourish; to feed the mind and soul.
     This summer has been no exception to that. I started in May, by getting out into the forest in which I live to remove invasive plants. I don't want to use any poisons so I've been removing them by hand. I go out every other or third day and pull up ferns, coral ardisia plants, and thin out grape vines that are too prolific. While I'm doing that, I discover micro worlds and ecosystems on the forest floor that have a beauty that astounds me. I've found various types of live snails that I didn't know were in my own yard, teeny tiny toads, and listen intently to sounds of birds, insects, and the music of leaves capturing the breezes. One day, my shovel hit something just under the surface of the dirt that was hard and hollow sounding. As I explored, I realized it was rectangular in shape. I even got a little excited hoping I had found a treasure chest. I've lived here over 30 years so it was at least that old because we hadn't buried anything on the property. In the end, it turned out to be roofing material. Probably left from when our house was built. But that's ok. It gave me some moments of fun and adventure.
     In July, I had more adventure when we went on a trip to Cuba for three weeks. We had signed up for a tour. In their literature, they said the group size could be anything from 2-12 people. When my husband and I showed up for the group meeting in Havana, we were the only ones other than the guide. No one else signed up. So we ended up having the tour with our guide in a private taxi! Although, it was very, very hot, we had a great time. I think my gardening in the Florida heat of May and June got me in shape for the trip. The things I liked best about Cuba are the people. They were so friendly and interesting. When we asked someone if we could take their photo, they smiled huge and posed and then carried on fascinating conversations with us. The architecture seems to be trying to reveal stories with every patch of peeling paint and plaster. And the landscapes were stunning from the tropical beaches to the limestone mogotes of Viñales. Since this is basically an art blog, the photos I'll share with you from Cuba relate to that.
Fusterlandia is a place built and designed by artist, José Fuster near Havana.  It is described as Gaudi on steroids.

Fusterlandia, the art of José Fuster

     We had so much fun exploring the house and neighborhood decorated in mosaics. He even honored sewing machines.

at Fursterlandia

At Fursterlandia

     My favorite city was Camaguey. One of the reasons was because the artist, Martha Jiménez , has her studio there. Photography wasn't allowed inside, but the paintings and sculptures there are exquisite. I purchased a small ceramic artwork of hers that is part of her sewing machine series where she honors the work of women. I wish there was a book that had her artwork in it, but I can't find one.

The Longing of My Mother by Martha Jiménez

     Now, well into August, I'm still out in the woods every few days pulling up plants. This is the time for cicadas here and sometimes the sounds from them are deafening, but I really enjoy being out there.
     And, professionally, I've had several things happen this summer. I had an opening reception for my solo show in June and the closing reception is August 24, 6-9PM, at the Blake Elliot Gallery 102 Artisan Alley in DeLand. 386-450-0337. Also, I've had artwork published in the newest book by Jane Dunnewold, Improvisational Screen Printing Second Edition.

A detail of my work in green in the center

My artwork in green in the chapter on stencils

It's a fantastic book full of ways to add imagery to a surface and I'm honored to be included with the other artists in the book.
     I hope to wrap up the summer with a couple of new artworks that are presently on my design wall. And to continue with color studies I'm doing for enrichment.

color studies in paper

     I always dislike seeing summer ending, but also look forward to the idea of autumn being a time to letting go of things that need to go and making room to move forward. I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art blogs. Please make comments on the artists' posts to let them know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.

Where Do You Show Your Art?

     There are many choices on how to share your art with the world. When an opportunity presents itself you have to consider several things. Things such as cost to you, number of people who will see it, security, insurance, chances of making a sale, and overall satisfaction with the venue. I've had individual pieces exhibited with SAQA in static shows and traveling shows. I've exhibited individual pieces in some local museums in shows. All have been rewarding to me personally and I've made some sales because of them. But I never had a true body of work that would allow me to have a solo show. Until now.
     After taking and completing the Art Cloth Master Program with Jane Dunnewold, I finally had enough work finished in the same style that I could call a cohesive body of work. Two of the pieces got shipped to Houston for our group exhibit Many Voices from One to be in the International Quilt Festival this autumn. For the remaining pieces, I found a good local venue. It's the Blake Elliot Salon and Gallery in DeLand, Florida. It's only about five miles from my house so I don't have to ship the pieces. During the work week, it's an elegant hair salon with the art hanging on the walls, chandelier from the ceiling, good traffic, and great location in the center of downtown. On reception nights, the salon equipment slides to the back behind partitions and it is a true gallery space. It's located on a street called Artisan Alley which comes alive on Friday nights (when the reception is held). There are vendors selling organic produce, food trucks, music, an amazing gift shop with a bar, an up-scale kitchen goods shop, bats that swarm at sunset, and lots and lots of people sitting, chatting, and partying.

part of the party outside

part of my exhibit inside

     One of the things that crossed my mind was that salon products may get on my artwork or that people may touch and damage some of the pieces. In the end, I decided not to worry about that. Blake has insurance and having my work seen in public is better than storing it in my gallery under the futon. I'm not sure I'm a good fit for a full-time art gallery because I don't want to be a slave to producing works on schedule as most require. I want to create the work when I feel inspired and enjoy creating it rather than make it feel like it is a job. I retired from working full time a few years ago and want to remain job-free. 

     The best thing about the exhibit was being able to see all the work hanging together, which made me feel fantastic. The works will hang until late August and then there will be a closing reception. I walked in during the week, when people were having their hair done and it was so fun seeing my works surrounding them. The customers are really into the art and love going to this salon for that reason. They sit there sipping whiskey or other drink of their choice while getting beautified. I need to go and take some photos of it set up as the salon with my art. I forgot to do that when I was there.

before the opening

before the opening

before the opening

labels Blake had printed

my artist statement posted near the door

     When the show opened, I was so busy mingling and talking to people about the art that I forgot to take photos of the crowd. I didn't remember until almost before closing at 9 PM.

Blake and two of my friends

     It was a great and satisfying evening for me and I'm so glad that I considered using non-conventional venue to have a solo show. 

I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find posts from other artists. Please make comments on their posts so that they know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.

What Do You Look For In A Book About Creating Art?

     I love to read books about many different types of things. And art books are no exception. But as I've progressed, I'm more selective about which books I want to purchase about art techniques. They must have good photos, good examples, detailed descriptions, and exercises to do in order for me to want to spend time with them. In December, I got a book with color studies in it by Richard Mehl

  I have learned a lot from color studies in the past, but feel there is always more to learn. I've been too busy until recently to take the time to start studying from it, but this past week I settled down and did the first exercise in it. I took a meticulous approach to it and took my time creating a color wheel that I hope to use as reference in the future. I've done color wheels before; some simple ones and one that was more detailed, but this one shows me some relationships that are more complicated. 

     To get the exact colors, I purchased colored papers in a kit called Color-Aid. It has papers in 314 different hues, tints, and shades. They are labeled on the back with codes that tell how much white, black, etc. are in them. Just taking them and rearranging them in different ways is a good study. Also, using them as reference to mix paints is a good study. Because of the price, I was hesitant to buy the kit, but decided it would be so useful to me in many ways that it was worth it. 

     The first exercise in the book instructed me to make a color wheel with the 12 basic colors using tints, shades, and compliments if possible, and to also include a 14-step gradation of white to gray.  I could use paints or paper. I can't pass up a good challenge so I wanted to include as many tints, shades, and relationships as possible. I tried several designs sketched out on paper and got inspired when I looked at a mosaic fountain from Morocco. I like the eight-pointed star and the shapes that can be formed when combining the stars in patterns. It took a while to cut out the pieces and glue them together, trying to get everything matched up. All the shapes didn't match up exactly in the end (which is why I gave up piecing fabric long ago), but I'm pleased with the result. 

     I'm looking forward to exercise 2 about contrasts of dark and light. I'm linking this up to Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art blogs. Please make comments on the artists' posts so that they know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.

Can Art Be Hung In A Window?

     Have you ever hung any of your art in a window? Usually I wouldn't because I'd be afraid the sunlight would cause the colors to fade. But I have a sliding glass door that I want to mark so that people don't walk into it thinking it is open. (I did that once and almost lost a tooth because I hit it so hard.) I could hang a small piece of metal art or plastic or some other solid one of those clear suction cup hangers. Instead, I decided to try a different sort of fabric art that I'm hoping won't fade.
     I monoprinted regular copy paper with colors of my Prochemical fabric paints. I could have used any type of paint, but I have a nice supply of that in a variety of colors and love it. I allowed the papers to dry. Next, I got a piece of sheer polyester fabric prepared by screening on Color Magnet and dyeing the fabric in dilute black procion mx dye. The dye washed out of the fabric everywhere except where I had screened on the Color Magnet.
     Then I used a technique described in a book by Jane Dunnewold and Claire Benn on  paper and metal leaf lamination to attach the colored papers to the prepared polyester. To get the design, I used a thermofax screen of vines that I had made from my photos to screen on the gel medium to the sheer fabric. After that was done, I applied gold leaf also with a thermofax I had made from one of my photos. Then I did some hand stitching to laminated vines. To complete the artwork, I sewed the laminated polyester fabric to a commercial sheer polyester fabric that had a scroll design embroidered onto it so that when hung in the window, the scrollwork will be visible through the laminated polyester.

Close-up showing the "paper" vines, stitching and gold leaf.
NOTE: you can see some of the scroll work on the under sheer through the top sheer

I put the word paper in quotes above, because the paper is actually gone. It gets washed away in the process, leaving only the paint. But a different look than if the paint was applied directly to the fabric instead of in the lamination process.

Close-up of it hanging in the window

     To hang it, I sewed the top over a painted dowel, attached some wire to the top and sides of the dowel to make the dowel look a little nicer, and hung it from a clear, suction cup hanger stuck to the window. I purposely cut the fabrics beforehand so that the polyester underneath with scroll work would be longer and hang out the bottom.

On the window just after sunset

     I love how it looks in the window. It's size is about 12 x 8 so it still leaves lots of clear window to see outside. And it's character changes as the light changes during the daytime and in the evening which makes it an interesting piece. How long the colors last in the exposure to sun remains to be seen, but since they are applied with gel medium, I expect them to last awhile.
     And I have news... I'm having a solo show of my work this summer in a local gallery. The gallery is an interesting one. The front section is the art gallery while the rooms in the back house a salon. And it is located in an alley of the main street. The alley has a great gift shop, up-scale kitchen shop, and comes alive on Friday nights with food trucks, music, organic farmer's market, and even bat houses from which the bats swarm at sunset. It's called The Blake Elliot Gallery The opening reception will be Friday, June 22, 6 PM - 9PM. If you are in the area, try to come. It should be fun.

Promo for the exhibit

     I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find other fabric related artworks. Please make comments on the artists' posts so that they know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.

Do You Have A Favorite Product To Use In Making Art?

     Do you have a product that you use often in making your art and that amazes you? I have several products I love to use. Procion MX dyes, fabric paints, colorless extender, thermofax screens, and others. But I just discovered a product that has been around awhile but I never tried called Color Magnet by Jacquard. It is advertised as a dye attractant that magically attracts more dye where it is applied. I was intrigued with possibilities for its use. So I bought some and set up an experiment.
     I took swatches of white cotton broadcloth that I had scoured. And I applied the Color Magnet paste to the fabric through a thermofax screen. I let it dry overnight. Then the next day, I put each swatch in its own ziploc baggie. I mixed up a solution of ProChemical's Procion MX dye called Celery. I chose that color because when I had used it before on folded fabrics, the colors that are in it split to create a multi-colored cloth. And I wanted to use a dye mixture that I knew could split easily to see if it would split using Color Magnet. I made up several dilutions of my stock Celery dye in water with soda ash. I poured each concentration in a baggie with the swatches and let them batch 24 hours.
     The following day, I washed them out and loved the results. And the Celery dye did indeed split a little in the places where the Color Magnet was on the cloth.

Sample A on top is the most concentrated
Sample B is a dilution of the dye in A

There's B again on top
Sample C is a dilution of the dye in B

There's C again
Sample D is a dilution of C
note that it is more brown

     I was also curious to see if Color Magnet would work on previously dyed cloth. So I took a swatch of the broadcloth that I had previously dyed in the color Marine, which is a not so intense blue-green. I screened on the Color Magnet, let it dry overnight and the next day put it into the same dye dilution as Sample C.

the cloth shows it has been overdyed
and the leaf is the same tone of Celery that Sample C has

And while I was doing these experiments, I got another idea. Would Color Magnet allow polyester fabric to take the dye? Normally, the Procion MX dyes wash right out of polyester. So I took a swatch of white sheer polyester and screened on Color Magnet, dried it overnight, and also dyed it in Solution C.

The next day, the whole cloth looked like it had taken the dye. But, of course, when I washed it out, the dye washed out of the polyester...EXCEPT for where the leaf had been screen on with Color Magnet. The dye stuck! And it didn't change the hand of the fabric at all. 

SO COOL!

     So now I have all sorts of ideas to add imagery to my fabrics without changing the hand of it. The downside is that when you dye it, it also changes the background color. But it will definitely have a prominent place in my future works. I'm running more experiments now with different ways of screening Color Magnet on, diluting it, extra applications of it, etc.

     Also, I want to announce that I have a new Website I built with WordPress. I had never done any kind of tech work like that before. The first two days, I couldn't figure anything out and couldn't get text or images onto it. Then, I hired a service called WordPress Live for $150. For that price, you get unlimited phone calls for 1 month and they screen share with you and teach you how to use WordPress. Their goal is for you to end up with a cool website that will attain the goals you want and that you can maintain on your own. Each phone call is limited to 25 minutes, but you can call right back if you want as many times as you want. They limit it so that you will be encouraged to work on your own. It only took a few calls to get me to understand how to use WordPress. It's a very impressive service and I'm not getting any compensation from them to tell you this. I just want you to know about it in case you want to build a website, too.
     I also started an Instagram account where I want to share photos of nature and also to help promote my art. All this from a person, who, back in the day said "Email? I'll never use email. Internet? What a crazy idea. Not for me." Now I try to keep up with it all. I've read tech learning is a good exercise for the brain and helps prevent dementia. Hope it's true.  I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find other fabric art blogs. Please make comments on the artists' posts so that they know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.

How Do You Get Your Business Side Of Your Art Practice Together?

     Do you regularly spend time on the business aspect of your art practice or squeeze it in when you can? My past modus operandi was to just squeeze it in when the mood struck. I've read that to be a successful artist, you must spend at least 50% of your art time on business; marketing, promoting, and managing. Even though I know that, I've not followed that rule.
     But, I'm going to try to devote more time to it. To that end, I've reopened my Etsy  store with my newer works. I spent hours doing the photography for it showing not only the fronts of the pieces, but also the backs. And some photos of it installed. I plan to add more installation photos soon.
     As for my older works, I've decided to get rid of most of them. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet. I may try to cut some of them up and convert them into smaller artworks, or I may just leave them in places with signs that whoever likes them can take them. I plan to take my labels off the back so that they remain anonymous. But I've moved on from what they are and want to move forward with the work I'm doing now. It feels good just to state that.

some of my newer work from The Transformation Series

    My old website is gone and I'm presently building a new one. I installed WordPress and bought a theme for it and am learning how to create the new site. I love being a student, and I've read that learning computer technology is one of the best things to do to prevent dementia. The other good thing to do to prevent it is quilting and art making. So my brain should be in good shape! It may be a month or more before I publish the new website because I'm finding it quite challenging but that's a good thing.
     All of this seems like an appropriate thing to do in Spring; to start anew. In that spirit, I take regular breaks from the computer to go outside and work in the yard. I've started a new color scheme out there (bright blue violet and bright yellow green) and have painted almost 50 things so far from terra cotta pots to window boxes to birdhouses.

Painted Bird Bath

Painted pots with freshly repotted plants

Painted CD installment

Painted pots awaiting plants

Painted window boxes with birdhouses

Painted hose protector

 I've convinced my husband to paint the front door the bright blue-violet, too. And with the leftover paint, I'm going to paint the garage door like the Tardis from Dr. Who.

The Tardis

     So much art to create, but business to attend to first. That's why I have not posted here for so long... I'll let you know when the doors are done. And the website. I'm linking this up to Off the wall friday where you can find artquilt blogs. Please make comments on the artists' posts so that they know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting
     

When Is It Time To Move On?

     Do you ever get to a point when you are creating art and get stuck? I was working on my series "Transformations" and wanted to create at least two more large works and several more small collages. I dyed some fabrics for backgrounds and started to collect some photographs to use for imagery. But, I couldn't decide on the right colors or images. I tried sketching, painting, and auditioning digital attempts at compositions. After a few weeks, I realized I had lost the inspiration and energy I originally had for this series. And I found myself daydreaming about another series. So I decided to declare to myself that "Transformations" was done. Perhaps, someday, I'll come back to it.
     I'm feeling very good and excited about starting a new series that I may call "Journey". Over the years of traveling that I've done, I've seen a lot of exotic and wonderful things and have become enraptured with many of the cultures I've encountered. I didn't try to create art based on my travels because I'm not excited about recreating landscapes or images of people. Instead, I want to capture moods, styles, feelings, etc. and didn't know how to do that. But my latest trip to Morocco has given me ideas. In the  abstract patterns of the rugs I could see the mountain and desert landscape. In the abstract patterns on the textiles, I could see the plants and architecture.
     So I've decided to use patterns in local textiles as way to express types of journeys we all experience. I began my exploration into this by printing a couple of exotic patterns onto gray fabric with my printer and using Misty Fuse to attach them to pages in my sketchbook. Then I started to let my imagination take me as I sketched and free-associated words and phrases. I used a mind map like this to inspire the previous series.

sketch book pages

Then I used some markers to add color. On the next pages, I'm going to try to come up with ways to use the imagery of textiles to express some of those ideas and develop them into a form I can put on fabric with dye, printing, stamping, and stitching. 

     The other evening, I started a small piece with fabrics I had leftover from dye experiments. I fused them to felt, thermofax printed over them with transparent white paint, and added some stitches just to see what effects I could get.

experiment

     So that's where I am now. In the experimental stage, which I find very fun and full of inspiration. This has helped me to know it's time for me to let "Transformations" go and begin a new journey.

I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art blogs. Please leave comments for the artists so that they know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.

Do You Like To Work Collaboratively?

     Have you ever done artwork on one piece with several other artists at the same time? I never had until just a few weeks ago when I was invited to help create a set of art cloths to grace an exhibit at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, my hometown. It was for an amazing exhibit put together by scientists and artists called  "A Better Nectar". The artist in charge who coordinated the exhibit is Jessica Rath and the artist who was in charge of designing the cloth is Madison Creech.

Cover of the Brochure

     It's about the fact that certain bumble bees pollinate certain plants in a very special way. They hover over the anther part of the flower which contains the pollen and vibrate their wings at just the right frequency to allow the pollen to be ejected out onto them. Honeybees can't do this. Neither can the wind. So these bee species are extremely important to keeping these plants on our planet. Many of them produce foods that are part of our diet.

A giant anther sculpture that makes sound of pollen
being ejected when a person stands in front of it

     Over the course of a three-day weekend, we seven artists practiced printing with screens, designed screens with images of pollen, finalized our design, and discharge printed it onto three purple silk cloths that were each about 4 feet wide by eight feet tall. Of course, since the discharge paste is toxic, we wore respirators when near it and while we printed. And we worked outside in a beautiful courtyard on the campus.

That's me on the right side.

two of the cloths almost finished

Ironing to make the paste discharge

Screening on discharge paste

     The exhibit opened with a reception on three different places on the Stetson Campus the other night. When you stood outside the art museum, they had a portable microscope that you could focus onto anything you wanted and the images were projected onto the outer wall of the building. The purpose was to get you to interact with the microscope and they had some set up inside focused on pollen grains.

An image of a sequin on my purse projected

Stitching from my purse projected

    Inside the art building were sculptures of parts of bumble bees' hives with speakers inside. A choral group had prerecorded sounds to mimic the the frequencies of the bees' wings. The speakers are linked to the weather station at our local airport and switch sounds to match what the bees sound like as they would respond to temperature, wind, and humidity changes in the real world. You stick your head into a sculpture and can listen to the changing sounds in real time. 

Jessica Rath, the sculptor, explaining

     And at the entrance to the science building is the art cloth we created. 

My husband and me in front of the cloths

     The flowers and bee are paper sculptures created by students. Notice the musical score (to represent the music of the bees' wings) printed near the top of the cloths.

     It was a magical night not only because of this exhibit, but also, because just a few blocks away, we attended a mind-blowing M.C. Escher exhibit at Museum of Art DeLand an hour before. 

So, the answer to the original question, for me, is a resounding YES. I loved working collaboratively and hope to do so again. And do come to DeLand to see these two exhibits if you can. The links above will give you the details and dates.

     I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find some interesting art quilt blogs. Please make comments on the artists' posts so that they know you visited. Thanks for stopping by.